Scottish-lead Consortium Purchases Nuclear Reactor Land near Sellafield

A newly formed consortium led by Scottish and Southern Energy is aiming to build nuclear reactors located in England and Wales after jointly purchasing land near Sellafield in Cumbria. The proposed new generation reactors will have enough capacity to power up to 3.5 million homes.

Iberdrola, owner of subsidiary Scottish Power, joined up with their usually rival counterpart, Scottish and Southern, as well as French utility giant GdF to dole out  £70m to purchase the land near Sellafield. The land was purchased from an auction put on by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which plans to use the money to fund a £75bn clean-up scheme. 

The Scottish governing bodies have banned nuclear reactors from being built in Scotland, which already has six nuclear reactors which are set to be decommissioned. In the wake of the ban, Scottish energy giants are climbing on board plans in the UK to build new nuclear reactors. The UK’s “big six” are already making plans to begin building nuclear reactors around the country to replace ageing nuclear reactors.

The consortium has said that they plan to construct reactors which would have at least a total capacity of 3.6 gigawatts. The total capacity would be roughly enough generated electricity to power 3.5 million homes. If the consortium receives the right permits and permission, building will go ahead in 2015. The Scottish-lead consortium is the third group to secure sites appropriate for nuclear reactors. 

RWE npower and E.ON have also joined forces to form a nuclear reactor building consortium. Earlier in the year, the two German firms purchased lands from the NDA nearby to already existing nuclear reactors.